The Alaska Supreme Court on Friday ruled that government offices must provide health, job and pension benefits to the same-sex partners of public employees, overturning a lower court’s ruling.
“Essentially all opposite-sex adult couples may marry and thus become eligible for these benefits,” the high court said in its ruling. “But no same-sex couple can ever become eligible for these benefits because same-sex couples may not marry in Alaska. The spousal limitations in the benefits programs therefore affect public employees with same-sex domestic partners differently than public employees who are married.
